DECRYPTION – Regulators are stepping up the fight against facade green investment. DWS was raided.
The case is iconic. On Tuesday morning, no less than 50 police raided the premises of Deutsche Bank and those of its asset management subsidiary, DWS, in Frankfurt. Which is rather unusual in finance on the Old Continent. DWS is suspected by financial regulators of “greenwashing”, that is to say of greening only its ESG investments (based on environmental, social and governance criteria). She is thus the subject of an investigation for “fraud” on investments “sold as greener and more sustainable than they actually were”, said the city prosecutor’s office.
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The case started last summer in the United States. A former DWS sustainability manager, Desiree Fixler, then accused Europe’s second-listed asset manager of inflating the size of its ESG-compliant investments. And thus deceived investors. The management company has always denied the charges. On Tuesday, German justice…
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